Myself,two 05 HD's and another brand left the Southwestern part of Va. on 6-11-05 to try and avoid Tropical Depression Arlene, we didn't,we went by the West Va turnpike(I 77) to I64 in Charleston,W.Va,our first night was in Kentucky just outside Lexington. We followed I 64 through Indiana,Illinois and picked up I 70 in St. Louis and crossed Missouri picking up I 29 and headed for the Dakotas. Once arriving in South Dakota I had to stop at Sioux Falls(J&L HD)I stop there on the way to Sturgis and have found them to be great,very biker friendly,they even opened up early and let us all in.Of course a trip on I 90 you have to stop at Cabela's and then Wall Drug. We made it to the Bad Lands and then to Rapid City,back to Mt. Rushmore, the Needles Hwy and Custer National Park and ended with Crazy Horse. We left there and went through Hill City to Deadwood and then to Non rally Sturgis. Wow, it doesn't look the same. Leaving South Dakota we went to Montana and stayed on I 90 until Billings where we then cut off to go through Red Lodge in order to enter YellowStone by way of the NE entrance in Cooke City,Montana. One of the best rides of the trip is from Red LOdge to Cooke City by way of the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, what an awesome great ride and road.Of course you have to do Old Faithful if you make it to the park,we did and got pics. With time short we had to go out the west entrance and return the next day to continue through the park to the Grand Tetons,good riding and views as would be expected.On to Jackson Hole which is a good place if you have a lot of money. I also found out what happens when you press the 93 octane button but use the green handle at the gas pump,after syphoning the diesel fuel out we made it across a beautiful pass and onto Idaho Falls,its a good ride looking at the Tetons from the west side as well.We went back up I 15 to I 90 in Montana again and headed towards Washington State,5 miles from the Idaho panhandle border still in Montana my 05 SE died at 75 mph. I learned a lot about HOG roadside assistance with this incident, they wanted to tow the bike 120 miles the opposite direction instead of 80 miles to the closest dealer which is where we were going. It took an hour of explaining this to someone looking at a computer to go look at a map. They still sent a tow truck from 125 miles away to tow me the 85 miles the opposite direction, go figure, they also only paid $100 towards this bill and I had to pay out $246. Shumate HD in Spokane was great,they came by my motel and got my key and put the bike inside until they would be open for business. They got to the bike first thing and found that HD has a wiring harness that was rubbing on the inside fairing bracket in the fairing and was causing the kill switch to short out. These guys said it was the first one they had seen years,however in the past two weeks they have seen 3 more,beware.I left Spokane and met up with the rest of the group in Tacoma and headed towards Ca. We had to do the tourist thing and go through the Redwoods, they are something else,in Leggitt we drove the bikes through the Chandler Tree and headed to the Ca. coast ending up in San Francisco. We stayed there and ate fantastic seafood and on to Yosemine. Yosemine is as beautiful as any National Park and getting to go over Tioga Pass on only the second day it was open was nice but very cold,still a lot of snow at that elevation. One of the highlights was then going through Death Valley,living on the east coast and going through that desert was one of the highlights of this trip,it was actually cooler there than some of the other states we went through. Death Valley was wide open, and so were the bikes, I also found out that a stock SE can not be beat by an 1800cc other brand touring bike,boys will be boys. From Death Valley we made it to Las Vegas where I ran into LVRIDER at the worlds largest floor space HD dealer,they do have a lot of stuff. Leaving Vegas I broke off from the other three and headed back to Va.stopping at most all the HD dealers that I found close to the Interstate,I collect Dealer Dots,smaller and cheaper than T-Shirts. I 40 in Az wasn't that bad nor was it in New Mexico. I had to stop in Erick, Oklahoma and visit Harley and Annabelle,they are a blast and love bikers and Route 66. Anyone driving that way has to stop,they are EZ on and OFF the Interstate and will be like no one you have ever met. I 40 in OK was pretty rough and very hot 100 degrees, I 40 in Arkansas was terrible and very hot as well, its the first time I have ever hit bumps in the road that would pop your side bags open,I had to lock them to make sure they stayed shut, and thats no bull. Tennessee had construction in Memphis,Nashville and Knoxville but the road wasn't that bad. Finally after leaving Las Vegas I pulled back in to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Va. four days later and about 2200 miles. This trip totaled 7,370 miles and took 19 days to complete. This poor bike hasn't reached its 2 month birthday and has 10,000 miles. I have read about the shocks and seats in this forum, I wish I had maybe done something with the shock because on rough roads you will feel the bumps, I did keep 18 pds of pressure in the rear. The seat wasn't that bad, your butt is going to hurt no matter what kind of seat you have. Well there it is,four guys on the east coast saying they were going to take a trip across the country to the west coast, I bet you guys in the west coast say that someday you will make a ride to the east coast,if you do,let me know, I will take you on the Blue Ridge parkway and some of the other Va. West Va and North Carolina sights. [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]
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Topic: Around the US (Read 2560 times)